How do I convince Win10 that a program (LockHunter) is safe?

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I downloaded LockHunter on the recommendation of someone else on this forum and I’m quite happy with it. LockHunter has allowed me to delete unneeded files of various types that some program failed to unlock. My problem with it is really a Win10 problem: Every time I try to execute LockHunter, Win10 warns me that it might not be safe. I appreciated this warning the first few times I saw it but it has become more of a nuisance. Is there any way I can flag LockHunter as a program that, in my opinion, is safe to run on my system?

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Try this in File Explorer navigate to where LockHunter is located. Right click in the .exe file, select Properties, click on Unblock, click OK.

--Joe

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Oops! When I tried to follow your instructions, Joe, there was no Unblock to click on. Looked through all of the other tabs in the Properties window and didn’t find an Unblock.

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Is this just the normal UAC warning? Is it from Windows Defender?

--Joe

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Tried to answer your question by Snipping the message window but Snipping isn’t available at that point. So, just guessing that by “UAC” you mean User Access Control, the answers to your two questions would be “Yes” and “Probably not”. At least, “User Access Control” appears at the very top, left corner of the message window I’m trying to suppress.

(BTW, don’t take my “just guessing” as a snide remark. It wasn’t meant that way at all. If anything that’s an admission that I’m not as completely in tune with Windows’ mnemonics as I might be.)

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I downloaded and installed LockHunter to test. I only got the normal UAC prompt (with Windows Defender and SmartScreen Filter enabled).

This is UAC doing its important job; so I would strongly recommend getting used to a click on Yes, especially for a program like this that you’ll probably use once in a blue moon.

(The UAC prompt doesn’t say it’s not safe, it asks if you want this app to make changes to your device; i.e. did you really ask for this.)

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@BruceR:
You’re right, I do only use LockHunter “once in a blue moon”.

That blue moon came around more frequently than usual as I recently restored 2,000+ music files from CDs to an external hard drive. (They had been lost when I had to replace a laptop amidst the upgrade to Win10.) The process of ripping the CDs with MediaPlayer brought an .ini file with every one and a Thumbs.db with many. LockHunter helped me get rid of these worthless files. I know they don’t cause any problem but they do nothing for me in my situation and I hate having worthless files lying around so they’re gone.

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You can try setting the program to run as administrator all the time. Right click the .exe, select Properties, click on the compatibility tab, click change this setting for all users button, click on run this program as administrator, OK your way out.

--Joe

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You can try setting the program to run as administrator all the time. Right click the .exe, select Properties, click on the compatibility tab, click change this setting for all users button, click on run this program as administrator, OK your way out.

You still get a UAC prompt if you do that. (But that’s a good thing.)

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